Van der Laan replaces Reijners as Dutch coach

Arjan van der Laan has been appointed to coach UEFA Women's EURO 2017 hosts the Netherlands, signing a contract running until after the final tournament that summer.

The 45-year-old leaves third-tier men's club Lisse and will take up his new post with the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) on 1 October. He succeeds Roger Reijners, who stepped down on 1 August after coaching the Netherlands at their first FIFA Women's World Cup, and was temporarily succeeded by assistant Sarina Wiegman.

"It is an honour to become national coach," Van der Laan said. "The KNVB has the ambition to be regularly present at final tournaments and to finally work towards a top-five spot in Europe. It is fantastic to be able to contribute to that and I am looking forward to the first moment I can be on the training pitch with the team."

Van der Laan played 423 professional matches for Sparta Rotterdam, Twente, ADO Den Haag and Dordrecht, scoring 89 goals. In 2006 he became Sparta youth coach and later led the reserves and assisted with the first team, twice taking over as caretaker. He spent last season as Utrecht youth coach before taking over at Lisse in the summer.

While the Netherlands are not involved in UEFA Women's EURO 2017 qualifying as hosts, they will stage competitive matches against Switzerland, Norway and Sweden from 2–9 March next year as the four teams eliminated in the World Cup round of 16 play off for a 2016 Olympic berth. This week it was confirmed that the Netherlands will kick off the UEFA Women's EURO finals on 16 July 2017 in Utrecht, with further group games in Rotterdam and Tilburg.